Stade Rennais FC

Stade Rennais

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Full name	Stade Rennais Football Club
Nickname(s)	Les Rouges et Noirs (red and blacks)
Founded	1901
Ground	Route de Lorient, Rennes
Capacity	31,127
Chairman	Frédéric de Saint-Sernin
Manager	Guy Lacombe
League	Ligue 1
2007-08	Ligue 1, 6th
Home colours Away colours

Stade Rennais Football Club is a French football club from the city of Rennes, will play their 48th season in Ligue 1 (the top French division) in 2007-08. The team coach is Guy Lacombe and the president is Frédéric de Saint-Sernin, who is close to billionaire François Pinault, who owns the team.

Founded in 1901 as Stade Rennais Université Club they assumed their current name in 1971. In the same year, the club won its last notable trophy, the Coupe de France, defeating Olympique Lyonnais in the final.

Stade Rennais was founded on March 10 1901 by former students from Rennes. Their first match took place two weeks later against FC Rennais, which they lost 6-0. In 1902 the club acquired the "Omnisport" status and became part of the USFSA. The following year, the Stade Rennais was a founding member of the Brittany football league. By the end of the season, the club had won the second "série", beating the FC Rennes 4-0 in the final.

Key players of the Stade Rennais in 1903 were Martin Peter, Langelier Montouan, Mr. Duchesne, Guilbert Ghis, Mr. Marcel, Mr. Leroy, Mr.Audren and Mr. Jamin. Duchesne, Jamin, Peter and Ghis were amongst the founding members of the club in 1901.

On May 4 1904 Stade Rennais and FC Rennais merged, to give birth to Stade Rennais Université Club.^[1]

The merger left the Stade Rennais UC with one main opponent in Brittany : the Union Sportive Servanaise. Close misses in 1905, 1906 and 1907 against the US Servanaise lead President Sexer of the SRUC to hire Welsh footballer Griffith as player-manager-captain. Having played in the English Football League for several years, Griffith adopted an English approach to management and tactics at the Stade Rennais, and won the Brittany football league in 1908 and 1909.

Griffith is however unable to retain the title in 1910, as the US Servanaise finish champions with 2 points more than the Stade Rennais UC. US Servannaise's domination continued for the next four years, as they won 5 titles on the run, with each time the Stade Rennais UC second, less than 5 points behind the champions.

During the First World War, Rennes were allowed to participate in the Allied Cup (Inter-federation French Championship) as well as the Rennes Cup, since the Brittany league was interrupted by the war. After winning easily the Rennes Cup, Griffith lead his players to a number of surprise wins against better known clubs and were finalists thanks to a 3-0 win against Le Havre and a 5-0 win over the Entente Suisse. The final, played in Paris against FC Lyon was delayed several times, but in the end the Rouge et Noirs became Interfederal Champions of France thanks to a 7-1 win.^[2]

The following year, Rennes had a successful run in the Interfederation cup but were unable to retain their title. Having become a strong national side, since Rennes won the Upper Brittany League in 1918, as well as the Allies Cup in 1916 and 1917, the post-war period was one of great success for the Stade Rennais UC : Western Champions in 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1923, the Stade Rennais was also finalist of the French Cup in 1922, losing 2-0 against Red Star. The squad in the 1922 final was notable for the presence for François Hughes, the first French international to play for Rennes, and considered to be one of the best French centre-forwards of his time.

In 1924, the Stade Rennais Université Club merged with the Rennes Etudiant-Club, keeping the name of Stade Rennais Université Club. The season was disappointing however, with Rennes finishing outside the top 2 places of the league they were playing in for the first time since 1907, being 3rd in the Western Division.

The President of the Stade Rennais, Isidore Odorico, brought several foreign players to the club (Lothka, Szabo, Nico...), but the side remained unable to win the Western Division, and President Odorico's attitude towards both amateurism and restrictions on foreign players conflicted with the Western Division's direction. As other teams rose in the Western Division (Stade Quimpérois and CSJB Angers), Rennes decided to retire from the Western Division in 1929.

For three years, the Stade Rennais Université Club was no longer part of the Western Division, and played only friendly games. They managed to attract good international sparring-partners, however, such as Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague, Austria Vienna, Budapest, and nation-wide known sides such as Red Star Saint-Ouen, Olympique de Marseille or FC Sochaux-Montbéliard.^[3]

In 1932, the FFF started the French professional football league. Whilst Odorico's policy was in favour of professionalism, the club was in a dire financial state after having missed 3 seasons of league football, and despite the support the club had in Rennes, the Stade Rennais' application to enter the professional football league was rejected on the basis that club finances were too fragile. Odorico managed to convince supporters to donate money to the club, and after the club's financial fragility had been solved, the FFF accepted the Stade Rennais amongst the 20 clubs to participate in the first season.^[4]

Rennes' start to professional football was encouraging, with a 6th place in their first season. However, the club's financial situation didn't improve, and by 1937 the club had to be subsidised by the town of Rennes after the mayor was put under pressure by local commerce. When the second World War started in 1939, the French football league was disbanded, and the Stade Rennais Université Club reverted to amateur status. For two years, the Stade only played in the French Cup, as well as friendly matches against local sides. In 1941, Rennes took part in the Occupied Area Division of the French League, but finished a disappointing 7th out of 9. The following season confirmed Rennes low level with a 14th position out of 16 in the North Zone Division.

In 1943, the Vichy régime instaured the interfederal French football league. Rennes-Bretagne is one of the 16 federations to be part of the league, and although the Stade Rennais UC was the only team in Brittany to have been in Division 1 only two players of the Stade Rennais were chosen to be part of the squad : Henri Guérin and Jean Prouff.^[5]

Those years were the beginning of stability at the club.But the season 1990-1991 was a failure, despite players such as François Omam-Biyik or Arnold Oosterveer, but the team was saved thanks to administrative relegations of OGC Nice and Stade Brestois. The following year, in 1991-1992, Rennes was not able to avoid relegation. The club began to play with young players from its youth academy, such as Sylvain Wiltord, Jocelyn Gourvennec, Ulrich Le Pen or Laurent Huard.Rennes came back in Division 1. On July 7, 1993 Pinault group became the main sponsor of the club, with its brands Pinault. The club has been playing in the top division since this date. During this era, the team had players such as Marco Grassi and Shabani Nonda.^[6]

In 1998, Breton billionaire François Pinault, a great fan of the team, bought the team, and gave it a strong financial stability^[7]. He was first very ambitious for its team, and bought at a high price South-American such as Lucas Severino (140 millions of French franc)^[8], Mario Hector Turdo for the Division 1 season 2000/2001 but these players were all failures^[9]. The team has now changed his strategy and uses players from its youth academy, arguably one of the best in France, and the best for three years now^{[10] [11]}.

In the 2004–2005 Ligue 1 campaign, Rennes managed to finish in a commendable fourth place in the final standings, their best ever position, securing them automatic qualifition for the UEFA Cup.

In the 2005–2006 season, following a very close race for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup qualifications in France, they finished a disappointing seventh place in Ligue 1.

In 2006-2007, Rennes again finished in fourth place, missing out on a UEFA Champions League place as a result of a Lille goal in the 93rd minute of the last game of the season. But they did secure UEFA Cup football for next season despite absence of Frei and Källström.

In 2007-2008, Rennes again qualified for the European Cup (Intertoto) by finishing 6th. After having done a huge recruitement (Jerome Leroy, Sylvain Wiltord, Mickael Pagis, Rod Fanni), Rennes was considerated as a challenger for this 2007-2008 season. In November they were 3rd in the championship. After having 9 consecutive losses, the team reacted and finished 6th. As a consequence of those losses, Pierre Dréossi , the coach, left his function and hired Guy Lacombe as a coach. Pierre Dreossi remains in the staff as a general manager.

Stade Rennais first kit

The Stade Rennais first played in a vertically-striped sky blue and sea blue shirt, while FC Rennais wore a red and black shirt.After the merger, Stade Rennais UC changed its colours, their new kit combined the vertical stripes of Stade Rennais and the red and black of FC Rennais.

The Stade Rennais gathers numerous groups of supporteras, ranging from groups of senior supporters to ultras. The most ancient, strucured and officially frequented, is Allez Rennes, founded in 1962. This group is together with Les Socios, founded in 1992, the two largest group of traditionnal supporters. The most noice comes however from the side of the stadium named Tribune Mordelles, on wich stand the Roazhon Celtic Kop (RCK) is to be found. The group is formed in 1991, but has roots already in 1987 and a section of supporters named Ultras Roazhon. It was formed by three young supporters who decided to establish the Tribune Mordelles as the true hot spot of the stadium. The group markes its precence not only throuh singing and flares, but also through numerous tifos, as well as coreographies and the breton idetity is regulary dicplayed through the use of celtic symbols. This group of supporters gathers a large number of ultras-supporters, but is deliberately organized rather unconditonnally, holding on to its values "Friendship, Respect and Party" ("Amitié, Respect et Fête"). The group is not officially political but has taken a strong position agaist "Football business", the suppression of the ultras-mouvement (the prohibition of flares etc.) and fascism. The Roazhon Celtic Kop is also a member of the french anti-racist network of supportergroups, the RSRA (Réseau Supporter de Résistance Antiraciste) and as outspoken anti-racists the group should naturally be labelled as Antifa ultras. The RCK makes no attempt to hide its sometimes very chaotic appereance and in 2003, a second group of ultras, The Breizh Stourmer (breton, to be understood as "Breton Warriors") was formed through a break with the RCK. This group, created around the idéa of a small strong core and situated on the opposite side of stadium, has been accused by the Roazhon Celtic Kop to house extreme-right leanings and violent clashes between radical members of the two groups have, mainly therefore, occured. The main rivals of the RCK has however not been the Breizh Stourmer, but since many years the supporters of FC Nantes, notably the Bridage Loire. The Breizh Stourmer is since 2008 dissolved, but the year saw also the birth of a brand new group of supporters, the Unvez Kelt (breton, to be understood as "Celtic Unity") (UK). Initially refused as a group of supporters by the club, it was finally accepted, with the help of Les Socios and should according to some be seen as a branch of Les Socios with a spirit orientet towards the ultras-mouvement. Another group of supporters is Les Diables Rouges.

• Winner: 1965, 1971
• Finalists : 1922, 1935
• Semi-finalists : 1919, 1959, 1967, 1970, 1986, 2003 , 2006
• Quarter-finalists : 1918, 1923, 1924, 1929, 1934, 1952, 1989, 2000, 2004

• Champions : 1956, 1983
• Runners-up : 1939, 1958, 1980, 1993, 1994

• Intertoto Cup :
  • Winner : 2008
  • Finalists : 1999
• Coupe Gambardella
  • Winner: 1973, 2003, 2008
• Western DH (Division d'honneur) :
  • Champions : 1920, 1923
• Western USFSA League :
  • Champions : 1904, 1906, 1908, 1909
• French Interfederation Cup :
  • Winners : 1916
• Western Interfederation Cup :
  • Winners : 1919
• Odorico Cup :
  • Winners : 1920
• Allies' Cup :
  • Winners : 1916, 1917
• Upper Britanny League :
  • Champions : 1921
• Rennes Cup :
  • Winners : 1916

• Cup Winners' Cup :
  • 1965-66 : Eliminated by Dukla Prague in first round.
  • 1971-72 : Eliminated by Rangers in first round.
• UEFA Cup :
  • 2005-06 : Eliminated in group stage.
  • 2007-08 : Eliminated in group stage.
  • 2008-09 : Qualified for the 2nd turn. Rennes will play against FC Twente (NL)
• Intertoto Cup :
  • 1996-97 : Eliminated in group stage.
  • 1999-00 : Finalist, defeated by Juventus F.C..
  • 2001-02 : Eliminated by Aston Villa in semi-final.
  • 2008-09 : Winner, Beat SC Tavriya Simferopol in the third round

	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Goals For	Goals Against	Goal Difference
Cup Winners' Cup	4	0	2	2	1	4	-3
UEFA Cup	8	2	1	5	8	14	-6
Intertoto Cup	14	5	3	6	22	19	3
Total	26	7	6	13	31	37	-6

• Manager: Pierre Dréossi
• Assistant Manager: Alain Ravera
• Youth Coach: Laurent Huard
• Goalkeeping Coach: André Amitrano
• Fitness Coach: Christian Schmidt

As of July 28 2008.^[12]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  FRA Nicolas Douchez 2 DF  NGA Uwa Elderson Echiéjilé 3 DF  USA Carlos Bocanegra 4 DF  FRA Guillaume Borne 5 MF  SEN Kader Mangane 6 FW  FRA Sylvain Wiltord 7 MF  FRA Jérôme Leroy (vice-captain) 8 MF  FRA Sylvain Marveaux 9 FW  FRA Mickaël Pagis 10 FW  GHA Asamoah Gyan 11 FW  FRA Olivier Thomert 12 DF  FRA Rod Fanni 13 DF  SWE Petter Hansson (captain) 14 MF  FRA Bruno Cheyrou (vice-captain) 15 MF  FRA Yann M'Vila

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 GK  FRA Patrice Luzi 17 MF  CMR Stéphane M'Bia 18 MF  FRA Fabien Lemoine 19 FW  FRA Jimmy Briand 20 FW  COD Jirès Kembo Ekoko 21 FW  SUI Julián Estéban 22 FW  FRA Damien Le Tallec 23 FW  FRA Moussa Sow 24 MF  FRA Olivier Sorlin (vice-captain) 25 DF  FRA Lucien Aubey 26 MF  ZAM Felix Katongo 27 DF  FRA Bira Dembélé 28 DF  FRA Prince Oniangue 29 MF  FRA Romain Danzé 30 GK  SEN Cheick N'Diaye 33 DF  FRA Kévin Théophile-Catherine

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  FRA Florent Petit — GK  BRA Aurélien-Emmanuel Hérisson — DF  GHA John Boye — DF  FRA Gaëtan Février — DF  FRA Guillaume Heinry — DF  FRA Maxime Le Marchand — DF  FRA David Louhoungou — DF  RWA Gilbert Manier — DF  FRA Samuel Souprayen — DF  FRA Kévin Théophile-Catherine

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  FRA Yacine Brahimi — MF  FRA Abdoul Razzagui Camara — MF  FRA Gaëtan Caro — MF  FRA Yassine Jebbour — MF  FRA Franck Julienne — MF  FRA Icham M'Laab — MF  FRA Jimmy Nirlo — FW  FRA Yohann Lasimant — FW  FRA Yoan Pivaty

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  CMR Benjamin Moukandjo Bilé (on loan to L'Entente SSG until June 2008)

For a complete list of former Stade Rennais FC players with a Wikipedia article, see here.

Jocelyn Angloma Dominique Arribagé Jean-Luc Arribart Marcel Aubour Jean-Pierre Brucato Louis Cardiet Patrice Carteron Ousmane Dabo Claude Dubaële Julien Escudé Pascal Fugier Franck Gava

Stéphane Grégoire Bernard Goueffic Jocelyn Gourvennec Yoann Gourcuff Stéphane Guivarch André Guy Nicolas Goussé Laurent Huard Raymond Kéruzoré Guy Lacombe

Georges Lamia Bernard Lama Robert Lamartine Jean-Claude Lavaud Serge Lenoir Ulrich Le Pen Serge Le Dizet Marcel Loncle Bertrand Marchand Olivier Monterrubio Didier Notheaux

Frédéric Piquionne Simon Pouplin Jean Prouff Anthony Réveillère Robert Rico Daniel Rodighiéro Mickaël Silvestre Gérard Soler Guy Stéphan Yannick Stopyra Sylvain Wiltord

Farès Bousdira Mahi Khennane Uwe Reinders Oscar Muller César Luis Fabiano Shabani Nonda

François Omam-Biyik Boubacar Barry Laurent Pokou André Simonyi Shay Holtzman Erik Van Den Boogaard John Utaka Jerzy Willim Petr Cech

Lamine Diatta El-Hadji Diouf Erik Edman Andreas Isaksson Kim Källström Alexander Frei Marco Grassi

Sokrat Mojsov Goran Pandurovic Blaz Sliskovic Sylvester Takac Salvador Artigas Majid Musisi

Managers since accession to professional status in 1932, with the exception of 1939-1941 where the Stade Rennais reverted to amateur status, and 1942-1944 where no manager was appointed by the board, and 1945 where the Stade Rennais didn't compete in any competition.^[13]

Kalman Szekany:1932-1933 Mc Cloy:1933-1934 Josef Pepi Schneider:1934-1936 Jean Batmale:1936-1939 François Pleyer:1945-1952 Salvador Artigas:1952-1955 Henri Guérin:1955-1961 Antoine Cuissard:1961-1964 Jean Prouff:1964-1972 René Cédolin:1972-1974 Antoine Cuissard:1974-1976 Claude Dubaële:1976-1977 Alain Jubert:1977-1979 Pierre Garcia:1979-1982

Jean Vincent:1982-1984 Pierre Mosca:1984-1986 Patrick Rampillon:1987 Raymond Kéruzoré:1987-1991 Didier Notheaux:1991-1993 Michel Le Millinaire:1993-1996 Yves Colleu:1996-1997 Guy David:1997-1998 Paul Le Guen:1998-2001 Christian Gourcuff:2001-2002 Philippe Bergeroo:2002 Vahid Halilhodžić:2002-2003 Laszlo Bölöni:2003-2006 Pierre Dréossi:2006-2007

• Template:Fr icon Official Site
• Template:Fr icon Stade Rennais Online : Unofficial Website
• Template:Pl icon rennespoland

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